Garage Door / Gate Automation with LINEAR Relay (ST V.2 app Updated)

Here is my Recipe for a Z-Wave ST Secured and Automated Garage Door:

Items needed:

  1. GE Z-Wave Fluorescent Light & Appliance Module 45603
  2. LINEAR FS20Z-1 Z-Wave 20-Amp Fixture Mount Control
  3. SmartSense Multi sensor
  4. Shielded computer cable (strip the 3-wires)
  5. Old fashion garage door clicker which you already have!
  6. Solder and Soldering Iron.
  7. ST app on your phone.

Instructions:

  1. Strip one end of the computer power cable (the end which is not used to connect to the wall).
    a. Wight/Black/Green
  2. Connect Wight/Black/Green wires from the LINEAR FS20Z-1 device to the striped wire ends on the power cable.
  3. Solder the connected wires from Step 2 together with the soldering iron.
  4. Connect and solder the 2 blew wires to the circuit board of the clicker connection of the button.
  5. Use wire nuts or electric tape in order to cover exposed wire ends.
  6. Connect the power cable to the outlet and pair the LINEAR FS20Z-1 Z-wave relay.
  7. Pair with the ST Hub and test to see if it activates the garage door.
  8. Connect the GE Z-Wave Light & Appliance Module between the garage power cable and the line.
    a. Make certain to connect the garage door to the Z-wave outlet side of the module.
  9. Pair the GE Z-Wave Light & Appliance Module with the ST Hub.
  10. Attach the SmartSense Multi to the garage door.
  11. Open the ST app and setup with one of the two methods:
    a. Use the Smart Sense presence Sensors
    i. When someone with a presence sensor comes home turn on
  1. GE light & appliance module
  2. LENIER Z-wave relay.
    b. Use one of your ā€œHello Homeā€ actions:
    i. When the house is in ā€œIā€™m Backā€ mode turn on:
  3. GE light & appliance module
  4. LENIER Z-wave relay.
  1. Setup an ā€œAlertā€ in the ST app using the ā€œValuablesā€ option to alert you if the sensor is opened.
    a. Optional: Trigger the Siren.

> For SmartThings App V2:

  1. Open ST App V2
  2. Create a new room and name it ā€˜Garageā€™ or if you are automating a gate ā€˜Gateā€™
  3. Add the door sensor & Z-wave Linear relay devices to the room.
  4. Set the the ST Multi as a default device.
  5. Go to the Web IDE and modify the device ā€˜Typeā€™ for both of these devices as pictured in the images below:
  6. Have Fun!

You can try my garage door automation with Linear Z-wave relay, the only update to that is that you will no longer have it setup as Doors&Locks in the old ST app. In the new ST app, you will need to do the following:

1)Create a room and add the Z-wave motion sensor(taped to the gate) & the Z-wave Linear lf-20 relay to this room.
2)Set the motion sensor as ā€˜Prefered Deviceā€™ (recommend to use ST multi sensor).


3)In the Web IDE, you will need to make changes to the Device types for the sensor and the relay as follows:

Test it out and your garage door will magically open for you!
I will post some photos later on, to demonstrate how it worked for me.
In my opinion, this is the most secure way to protect and automate your garage door.

Updated on the latest Post!

Why not just use the Linear garage door opener?

Did you check the price tag? I donā€™t want to bash your idea, but a lot of people are not ready to part with that amount. I know my setup is not the most practical, but it is a lot cheaper. And thanks for another option.

Apologies - I didnt mean to sound sarcastic. I was just wondering benefits for/aganist, and price is certainly one of them!

I know im not nearly as technically inclined as some of the brilliant people on this board - which is one of the reasons Iā€™m on Smartthings and not Vera; I dont want to have to code in every Thing; this may be an option for Plebes like me :smiley:

Donā€™t get down on your self @bryanphaas . Iā€™m a tinkerer and not much of a coder. IT by trade. I create things and I ask for the other ST IT like me to help me code the apps for them. You will get all the help you need here.

P.S. that is actually a viable option for thous people who donā€™t want to tinker and just want to set it up and have it work out of the box. My setup, while brilliant, has one draw back. Batteries on the remote. need to change them once in a year or two.

Instead of the multi sensor, someone could also use this tilt sensor and saved $20 for each door. It works great! Just donā€™t have the temp sensor, but I donā€™t really need that in my garage.

Thanks for the idea. As I was using the Multi capability for tilt sensing.

I had the Ecolink tilt sensor on the garage doors at the house I just sold. I wonā€™t buy them again.
The sensitivity is too coarse ā€“ the door could be open over 2ā€™ high before they activate!

Second, hacking the garage opener with a relay is cheaper, but is not the right thing to do.
For the safety and liability of ā€œGarage Door Entrapmentā€ I will buy a Linear ($90) or Honeywell ($107) system for my new home.

From the Linear product info: Providing both audible and visual warnings prior to door movement, the GD00Z meets UL 325-2010 safety requirements.

I can understand a person hacking the switch, I cannot fathom a company supporting that approach. Hacking together the components to do it right could cost more than the Linear system. And, leave you open to Garage Door Entrapment injury or liability. Not to mention cause issues when sellingā€¦

@gtc100

Hey George, just FYI. UL 325-2010 audio/visual notification requirements only apply to Industrial and Restricted access locations, not residential buildings.

Other thing is that activating the garage door opener with a Linear relay or Arduino setup (Arduino SmartShield Garage Controller) doesnā€™t compromise the built in safety functions, both operate functionally the same as pressing the keypad.

2 Likes

Good info, David. Will look into that. Still, today, even with car remotes, I see the door before and as it closes. Without a camera or those signals/delay, I clearly understand the risk. This may alleviate the liability issue.

Just beware of false positives. I have had Smartthings hiccup on sensing my car (already in the garage) as away and then returned withing 20 seconds, triggering the door to open while nobody was home.

@thewizarddon. I safeguard against that with a 1-2 minute away rule and also setting that exception rule of not having the garage open during night mode at all.

Curious as to why you didnā€™t just wire the relay in parallel with the garage door opener, instead of sacrificing a remote. That way thereā€™s one less set of batteries to worry about.

I recently automated my garage door using the Echolink sensor and the same relay, and so far Iā€™m very pleased with the results.

1 Like

I have an older garage door. And for some reason, having the relay wired directly into the garage opener, interfered with the bell button. When pushed, the door would open half of the way; forcing the person opening the door to press the bell button again. I did check if there was a short, and then ended up splicing my remote.

How about just using a normal door/window sensor above the garage door:

I used this Ecolink door/window sensor instead of the Ecolink garage door tilt sensor mentioned above because several people in the ST community were getting false alerts from that unit. If you move the garage door more than 2" with the door/window sensor you will get a notification.

@Dan999
You used one of these:
LINEAR FS20Z-1 Z-Wave 20-Amp Fixture Mount Control ?
The two blue wires from the Linear connect to the contacts that the garage door button connects to? I guess it just opens or closes a contact?
Thx

Not a problem there. The only thing, if you want to setup the garage door opener, you will have to tell it that it is a conventional door and not a garage door.

I thought I read somewhere that you wanted it set up as a garage door, that way it gives a momentary open/close contact signal when you push open/close on your phone instead of a continuous open/close signal.

Maybe this was the problem you were having when you tried wiring the relay directly to the opener?

Anyone have relays randomly malfunctioning and opening or closing garage doors spontaneously. If so did you have any automatic rules (ie open or close with presence etc).
If I put the relay on my garage opener I would probably just keep it manual from the smartphone.

Sounds like a great idea. And if you are really paranoid, you can setup a light module on the garage opener and have it turn the power off to the garage door when away or on vacation.

@lmosenko

I am new here, can you explain the purpose in your setup of the GE module? I was going to put together a setup myself with just a LFM-20 in parallel with the wall mounted opener. Thanks.